Unimatrix Zero Part 2
In the Unimatrix Zero '' |image= |series= |production=40840-247 |producer(s)= |story= Mike Sussman, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky |script= Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky |director=Mike Vejar |imdbref=tt0709004 |guests= |previous_production=Unimatrix Zero Part 1 |next_production=Imperfection |episode=VGR S07E01 |airdate=4 October 2000 |previous_release=Unimatrix Zero Part 1 |next_release=Imperfection |story_date(s)=54014.4 (2377) |previous_story=Unimatrix Zero Part 1 |next_story= Imperfection Drive }} Summary Previously Voyager’s crew learn about Unimatrix Zero - a secluded place within the Borg collective where drones can be themselves while they regenerate, but only certain Borg have the ability to visit. The Borg Queen considers Unimatrix Zero a threat because she does not want her Borg to ever have traces of individuality, but Captain Janeway thinks it could give the Federation allies within the Collective. Janeway, Tuvok and B'Elanna Torres infiltrate the Borg Cube to try and free the select few that are able to go to Unimatrix Zero, giving them the ability to maintain their individuality outside of Unimatrix Zero, only to be captured and assimilated. Conclusion The Janeway, Tuvok and Torres drones are un-connected to the Collective as the Doctor had inoculated them with a neural inhibitor, protecting their individuality. They proceed with their plan to help Unimatrix Zero. However, Tuvok's inhibitor wears off, and the Collective eventually overcomes his mind. The Borg Queen confronts Janeway, demanding that the drones of Unimatrix Zero submit themselves for reassimilation. The Queen destroys several of her own ships, each housing thousands of lives, because only a handful within are "offline" and therefore suspected of being the newly sentient drones from the dream realm. Janeway calls her bluff, pointing out that such a tactic would essentially require her to destroy the entire Collective. Having discovered a means of sending Borg as drones into Unimatrix Zero, she then threatens to release a Borg-modified form of the nanovirus from within Unimatrix Zero which would kill every affected inhabitant's corporeal drone, unless Janeway agrees to speak with them. The captain thus informs her crew that Unimatrix Zero can no longer exist. Chakotay realizes that she found a loophole the Queen never considered and that the statement is meant literally-—destroying the matrix so the Queen can't reach the affected drones as easily, as well as cutting the Queen's only way to spread the nanovirus. The drones within are informed beforehand. Seven is forced to say goodbye to her lover, who is on a Borg ship far away in the Beta quadrant. Meanwhile, Voyager, aided by a Borg sphere crewed by liberated drones, manages to rescue the away team. The episode ends as the independent Borg, who now, like the Queen, have the advantage of being self-aware, take command of any vessels they can, rebel, and start a civil war with the Collective. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Hans Thielman on Thursday, September 28, 2000 - 8:24 am: Why would the Borg queen want Janeway, Tuvok and Torres to assimilate the Voyager crew? Wouldn't she prefer to use experienced and more reliable drones for such a task? Plantman on Thursday, September 28, 2000 - 3:22 pm: Dramatic irony? Why did she choose to go on a huge space and time race just to get Picard?? Starship captains are high on the hit lists of every major villain in the Star Trek universe. Adam Bomb on Thursday, September 28, 2000 - 4:12 pm: The Borg Queen is the ultimate sadist. It would be very ironic for a captain to assimilate his or her own crew, which is exactly what the queen is looking for. We won't have long to wait. Mark Swinton on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 8:06 am: Re. inexperienced drones: I'd have thought that assimilation instantaneously makes a drone experienced... # trekkerxphile on Monday, October 02, 2000 - 9:23 pm: Nobody's said it yet, but I'm sure everybody knows it: ST.com or my local tv guide, can't remember which, said the borg queen will stop at nothing, not even the destruction of her own race, to stop UZero. Point my ears and call me Vulcan, but that's REALLY illogical. If the whole reason she wants to destroy UZero is that it might undermine her power and destroy the collective, doesn't it defeat the purpose and help the enemy and cut the nose to spite the face for her to destroy her own kind instead of let UZero do it? Can anyone explain this to me? I'm posting this in kind of a negative tone, but, really, I am very, very confused. What happened to the search for perfection, logic, reason, effieciency, etc? Is she just going to throw that out the window? Of course, in 2 days it will become much clearer and this may be just a rumor that was very confusing. Merat on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 7:55 am: Perhapse they meant that she was willing to destroy INDIVIDUALS of her race? I know that no borg are individuals when in the collective, but... when has a little thing like continuity stopped TPTB? Jwb52z on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 1:15 pm: Merat, it would be analagous to destroying a few cells of your body to cure cancer. Brian Lombard on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 5:35 pm: Yeah, but like Crusher said in "The Best Of Both Worlds," "cutting him off would be like asking one of us to disconnect an arm or a foot - we can't do it," to which Riker replied "One of them jumps off a cliff, they all jump off." Did the Voyager writers miss that episode? Better question, did the Voyager writers see any of TNG's Borg shows? Jwb52z on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 5:48 pm: Brian Lombard, that was back in the infancy of the Federation's understanding of the Borg. Things may not be that simple. Brian Lombard on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 6:36 pm: So why were the Borg unwilling to disconnect Locutus? Why did Data's reaching the secondary command whatevers "worry" the collective? trekkerxphile on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 7:24 pm: I don't know, but didn't it seem like Locutus was an important part, more important than an average drone? That's what it seemed like to me in both BoBW and 1stContact. Like maybe we don't mind losing some extra weight but we do mind disconnecting brain cells or losing cells in our spinal column or something. However, I still don't really understand why the Borg Queen would willingly kill her own people to root out 1/1 million. Her actions would seem to be motivated out of frustration (or, if you deal in reality, the need for drama) and frustration is not efficient as I'm sure Seven has shared with us somewhere down the line. To carry on the previous metaphor, it seems like the borg queen is cutting off her foot because there's a tumor on her big toe. It's just not logical. Course, I haven't seen the ep yet and PAL, so maybe her actions make sense and I'm getting on a rant for no reason. Rene on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 8:04 pm: Voyager writers don't care...Back in TNG, the Borg couldn't disconnect someone from the Collective, now it happens all the time. The Borg in TNG were emotionless beings who assimilated species and technology...now they have a Queen who acts out of frustration. They destroyed 40 starships, but can't handle the Delta Flyer. They turned the Borg into a big joke. Jwb52z on Tuesday, October 03, 2000 - 8:05 pm:''Exactly, you can get rid of an insignifcant thing like a few skin cells or even some hair, but getting rid of an organ is different. Locutus was the link to humanity through which the Collective spoke when they created Locutus. ''Spornan on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 2:06 am: Perhaps after the events of BOBW, the Borg figured out a way to disconnect someone without it being detrimental to the collective. It would seem to be the logical thing to do. Otherwise the Borg would be an easy foe. Though really, the Borg have been used WAY too much. After First contact, we should have seen the last of them for a long time. The more we see them the more they turn into bumbling morons. Ghel on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 9:04 am: Well, even in TNG the nature of the Borg changed over time. I had always assumed that while the inhuman nature of the borg remains consistant, they do change subtly every time they assimilate a new race. Assimilating millions of people in one fell swoop would have to have some impact on the collective. This is sort of supported by the phrase "we will add your bio + tech distinctiveness to our own," and the line by the First Contact queen about evolving. Lee Jamilkowski on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 1:20 pm: Locutus, as Star Trek: First Contact proved, was a counterpart, supposed to give himself to the Borg of his own fee will. Of course, he was highly resistant. And the queen was shown to have only been interested in two people as counterparts, Picard and then Data. It seems to me that the queen just wants to turn the Voyager crew into drones, which is what I suspect has happened. # Benjamin Daniel Cohen (Bcohen) on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 7:41 pm: Once again, Janeway threatens to delete the doctor's program. That seems pretty drastic. Why doesn't she just have some of his memory files deleted like in "Latent Image"? After what happened the last time they tried it? # Mandy on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:02 pm: I'm kind of surprised the ultradisciplined Tuvok was the one to fold. So much for Vulcan mental abilities. Then again, Tuvok ain't no Spock. Scott McClenny on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 10:34 am: The only logical reason I can think of is that the neural suppressant was only effective on those who had at least a partial human ancestry and somehow Tuvok's neural biology counteracted the effects.Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Friday, October 06, 2000 - 12:11 am: Tuvok might be more susceptible because Vulcans are partially telepathic. Vulcans are more familiar with sharing minds and the Collective is the ultimate in sharing minds. # Aaron Dotter on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:05 pm: I'm sure I'll find more after I rewatch the tape, but my only nits are: Where did the medical team at the end come from? The Doc must have run an "Emergency Medicine 101" course for the science staff. That would be logical! # Josh 49 on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:12 pm: The Borg Queen tells the boy in UZ that she was his age when she was assimilated. This really bothers me. The idea that the Borg Queen was just some alien assimilated by the collective doesn't make sense. I've come to understand that the Borg Queen is a central aspect of the Borg consciousness that exists across the collective, so even when her body is destroyed (as in BOBW (as revealed by First Contact), First Contact, Dark Frontier, and now UZ-2), her personality still exists and a new body will be created for her. 1. That means the Borg Queen can never be destroyed (hey, why try?) and 2. she was not an alien who was assimilated. Of course, she could have just been lying to the boy. Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:19 pm: Josh 49, read your post again. The Queen's host body could easily have been assimilated when it was the kid's age, so nothing she said was false. # Shane Tourtellotte on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:24 pm: Okay, I can buy that the Doctor's nanovirus can maintain the captives'(Janeway/Tuvok/B'Elanna) individuality, and that a neural suppressant might prevent the Borg from reading their thoughts. The Borg Queen herself is disturbed that she cannot hear them. Why, then, does she let them roam free on that tactical cube, rather than having the Borg she does control immediately restrain them? Or are we back to the old "if they're not a threat, let them walk around unmolested" philosophy from TNG? Perhaps she wanted to wait and see what they were planning! # Now, am I really to believe that there are only five officers above the rank of ensign on board Voyager? That's what has to be true for Paris to be acting XO to Chakotay in this situation. There have to be people who outrank him on this ship. Like our old unseen friend Lieutenant Carey? Jwb52z on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:32 pm: Shane, Lieutenant Paris is the top ranking command level officer left. That's why he is the acting first officer. PaulG on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 10:40 am: It does seem strange. Kim gets to sit in the Captain's chair, not Paris. In addition, there has to be more than one group of Bridge Officers to handle the various shifts (a minimum of two, probably at least three) and it does seem strange that they would all be ensigns except for the main cast. While the "Night Shift" may seem unimportant, aliens do not follow Earth-time. Considering Neelix was on the bridge, I am guessing all possible Bridge Officers were unavailable.Shane Tourtellotte on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 10:51 am: I'm still not convinced that Paris should be so close to the top of the command structure. Even if only bridge officers can be captain or first officer, are there really no other lieutentant j.g.'s or higher on any shift on the Bridge? (Anyone of equal rank with Paris would beat him in seniority: he just got reinstated last episode.) There's rather a paucity of higher officers on the Bridge in that case, especially considering that's where the senior officers would tend to be assigned. Seems strange to me. Spornan on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 10:51 am: In a time of crisis, all main Bridge Officer are supposed to report for duty, regardless of if they are sleeping, or otherwise indisposed. Unless they were trying to say that Neelix is a ranking bridge officer there was no reason for him to be at the station on the bridge, except to give him his only line of the show. Mandy on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 8:27 pm: On Paris becoming 1st Officer, it's unusual but not without current military precedent. There are two chains of command in a line unit: administrative and operational. They often coincide, but sometimes don't. Under operational conditions, it's the position not the rank that determines who's in charge.Seniram 15:54, July 24, 2018 (UTC) With regard to Carey’s absence, he’s probably busy running Main Engineering during B’Elanna’s absence! # Early on, we hear that the tactical cube will need two hours to get its transwarp propulsion back on line. Later, we hear that two and a half hours have passed, and considerably more time goes by while the cube keeps poking along at impulse. What gives? Repairs may have taken longer then expected. # The Queen asks Janeway if she is willing to sacrifice thousands as if this a huge number. Considering a sphere, one of the smallest Borg vessels, contains over ten thousand drones, that seems kinda a small number to be throwing around. TomM on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 12:07 am: The average human mind cannot comprehend truly huge numbers. Even mathematicians and engineers, who manipulate numbers all day do not have a "feel" for the reality of those numbers. Having assimilated so many Federation members, including counsellors, tBQ knew that "Thousands" would have an emotional impact, while "Millions, Trillions, etc. would just be numbers. # Considering the Queen has the command codes, why doesn't she just shut down Voyager's engines instead of blasting away? (ANTINIT: Maybe she wanted them alive as bargaining chip with Janeway). Then again, why didn't Voyager change the command codes beforehand? They knew the risk. How do we know they didn’t? # Vicki on Wednesday, October 04, 2000 - 8:53 pm: In the last scene in sickbay, they all had hair. I think they should have been left bald. With all the stuff the Doctor had to do for them, I don't think stimulating their hair follicles would be high on the list of priorities. ( They did the same thing in the TNG episode when Deanna was altered into a Romulan. In the last scene when she was altered back, her long hair was back right away.) John A. Lang on Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 3:37 pm: All I can say is: "WOW! Janeway's hair grew back fast!"LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 6:46 am: The (IIRC) second-to-last scene of The Gift established that 24th century medicine can stimulate rapid hair growth.Seniram 15:54, July 24, 2018 (UTC) Also, the scene is 48 hours after the team was retrieved – the accelerated hair regrowth could have been implemented first, allowing the hair to regrow while the Borg hardware was removed. # And how is it that no one ended up with hands or eyes missing, as we've seen happen to extras when they have been assimilated? Such extreme modifications may only be required for certain drones. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 12:32 am: Considering that the Hirogen think of other species as prey, it seemed odd that a Hirogen would take orders from a Klingon. The Hirogen probably recognises Korok as a superior warrior. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 12:32 am: Tuvok identifies himself as 3 of 12, but then the Queen calls him Tuvok. Doesn't using an individual name defeat the intent of a 'cog in the machine' number designation? Matt Nelson on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 5:09 pm: I'm just guessing here, but we do know the Queen likes certain people (Picard, Data) to be her "pets" (more than just drones). Picard got a special name when he did it, but Data did not, so it's possible Tuvok could be like them, which would explain the BQ's calling him that. He did go in willingly. However, that still doesn't explain (aside from dramatic effect, if you deal in reality) him referring to himself as 3 of 12, unless he was really trying to give Janeway a hint that he was assimilated. # In part 1 the Queen tried & failed to disrupt Unimatrix Zero, but here Korok seems to do it without much of a problem. The UZ inhabitants were resisting the Queen’s attempt, but not Korok’s, as they knew he was doing it to ensure their survival. # D.W. March on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 3:24 am: The one thing that bugs me about this whole story is the absolute un-necessity of it all. U0 wasn't a threat to the Queen or the Collective until she tried to root it out and destroy it. It wasn't until then that she got in trouble. The Queen had no choice but to root it out, as it’s very existence undermined her control over the collective. # Derf on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 5:35 am: I find it curious that when the Borg invade the Unimatrix, they must stab these "dream-beings" with their extendo-hand probes in order to end the errant drone's dreamings. Must their dreams also be assimilated? They're most likely reinforcing the link to the hive mind. # Jason on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 8:31 am: If the virus that woke up all the U0 drones could be released in U0 directly, why didn't they give the virus to 7 and have her release it from the safety of the ship? It couldn’t – that’s why they had to take it to the central plexus of a Borg ship! # DonnaL on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 7:28 pm: The captain's plan seemed half-baked. No surprise twists, contingency, or back up plans. It was like they didn't really think about what the drones would do once given the virus, or consider how it would expose them to danger. The Maquis Lawyer on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 8:43 pm: Apparently, Janeway, Tuvok and Torres planned to be assimilated when they beamed over to the tactical sphere. That is why they had themselves injected with the neural agent which would block the collective from their minds. Incidentally, it is also why they employed the deception of using the same attack strategy as was used in the Best of Both Worlds, Part II. They wanted to use a strategy which the Borg had already adapted to. In this way, they could lull the Borg into believing that their plan had failed and that the Collective had succeeded in assimilating them. ' # ''DonnaL on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 7:28 pm: Where did this "neural suppression" come from? Does this mean they've found a "cure" for assimilation? ''Rene on Thursday, October 05, 2000 - 7:58 pm:'' Apparently so..which is so unrealistic since according to Guinan, the Borg have been in existance for thousands of centuries.PaulG on Friday, October 06, 2000 - 10:42 am: Come to think of it, the "neural suppression" trick does seem odd. Then again, it appears to be only temporary and wears off eventually. With Seven, the Doc (probably the most advanced Borg medical expert in StarFleet) and the entire population of U0, it is possible they could have come up with something. This sort of thing would probably only be useful in a mission like the one in the episode and intentional assimilation is probably not common. Maybe the Borg have not seen this before. In addition, maybe they think it is not a threat - they will be assimilated eventually. The Borg are well known for underestimating their opponents. Spornan on Friday, October 06, 2000 - 11:13 am: They are also well known for bring complete idiots. The Borg have become such a typical Villain, that they don't even warrant starring in the season finale/premiere. There was a time when the only way you beat the borg was fighting tooth and nail, and sacrificing everything you had to beat them. Nowadays, a single Ship can take on a special Borg War-ship. Wolf 359, a normal cube takes out 39 ships with little effort, and almost no damage. Voyager takes out a special Borg warship pretty much alone. inblackestnight on Friday, September 14, 2007 - 6:05 pm: '' Our intrepid crew didn't come close to taking out the tactical cube. They were just keeping it busy so the trio could follow though with their mission.' # Jesse on Monday, April 01, 2002 - 6:13 pm: The Borg Queen tells the boy in UZ that she was his age when she was assimilated. This really bothers me. The idea that the Borg Queen was just some alien assimilated by the collective doesn't make sense. Yeah, exactly. How would she become queen? Have we ever seen anything in the way of ambition among drones? Can drones climb the Borg collective ladder? So how would she go from drone to queen? And what's with this awful queen idea, anyway? What made the Borg such a great foe was that they were really an enemy without a face. Their ships were big cubes with every system distrubuted evenly throughout. Very alien. And they were like locusts, like this great plague that was sweeping across the galaxy. But a queen--a single point of leadership--wrecks the whole idea. LUIGI NOVI on Monday, April 01, 2002 - 9:37 pm: Perhaps. Then again, they are cybernetic beings, which means they are largely artificial. This means someone had to build them, or build something that evolved into them. While establishing a Queen isn't the same thing as establishing their creator, we do know that there had to be a individual that started it all, so was it so inconceivable that there would eventually be one that popped up, even if it was in the role of a leader, rather than a creator? Also, the Queen is consistent with the ant colony motiff that the Borg are based on, isn't she? Personally, I just wish her appearance in ST FC would've been her only one, or at the very least, that Voyager limited its use of her to only once--in Endgame (VOY), since her prior appearances in Dark Frontier and the Unimatrix Zero two-parter were gratuitious, did nothing to further the character or the Borg, and actually contributed largely to watering down the Queen concept, and destroying the Borg as a frightening villain. # MarkN on Sunday, October 15, 2000 - 8:22 am: I don't remember if this was mentioned or not already but why did the cubes and sphere self-destruct so quickly but when the Queen blew up her own cube it took awhile longer? Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Sunday, October 15, 2000 - 10:23 pm: The Queen didn't blow up her own cube, she blew up the cube that Janeway was on. MarkN on Sunday, October 15, 2000 - 11:08 pm: The Queen was on that same cube as Janeway, KAM...umm, wasn't she? TomM on Monday, October 16, 2000 - 12:06 am: Only in the sense that "she" was on all of the other cubes and spheres that she destoyed, since she is the focus of the hive mind. (The borg do still have a collective hive mind, don't they? -- Or is that a changed premise?) KAM on Monday, October 16, 2000 - 12:17 am: I think the Queen was in the Borg City. However all contact that she had with Janeway was via a monitor or holographic doohickey. I think it's very unlikely that the Queen was physically on the tactical cube that happened to be close to Voyager. When they reran part 1, I was wondering about that and looking at it as a potential nit, but it seemed that all the Queen scenes involving her physical body were seperate from the scenes on the tactical cube. # ScottN on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 9:10 am: Why don't Janeway, Torres and Tuvok have to wear the catsuit and high heels? And why don't they have any visible Borg-isms remaining (like 7's ocular implant, cheek implant, or hand implant? Or even invisible ones such as the cortical implant? Jwb52z on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 12:31 pm: ScottN, I don't believe they were Borg long enough to become sufficiently dependent on the implants to need them to live. Seven had them for almost 2 decades. # John A. Lang on Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 3:37 pm: Why did the Borg Queen call Tuvok-Borg by his real name instead of his Borg designation? Did she forget it? She’s testing him and the level of his resistance to assimilation. Category:Episodes Category:Voyager